Adolf Ingi Erlingsson, a local guide who was one of the first on the scene along with two police officers, described the 4x4 as a "total wreck" and "totally destroyed".

He told BBC News: "It was very strange, somehow the driver must have lost control of the car and it just went through the railing and crashed down onto the bank. It's kind of sandy. It flipped over and was totally destroyed.

Have you been affected by this story? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk

Emergency service workers frantically fight to save the lives of the injured (Image: Adolf Ingi Erlingsson)

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

Click to playTap to play

The video will start in 8Cancel

Play now

Read More

"Just before I arrived I was overtaken by a police car then when I got there, there were two police cars and I got out of my van and went to see if I could help. There were just two police officers and me to begin with.

"We tried to assess the situation and see who was alive and who we could help.

"When I got there four people were out of the car, one of them deceased, and there were three people trapped in the car. I think two of them were deceased.

"The driver was alive and trapped, more or less under the dashboard. I couldn't see his face. It was a very difficult situation.

Read More

"Outside of the car there was one adult and two children, semi-conscious.

"I talked a little bit to them. I tried to talk to the driver, calm him down, he was trapped inside the car. I said 'save your energy and we will try to get him out of there'."

The tour guide described rescue workers arriving at the scene and starting to cut the driver out of the vehicle.

"We had turned the car over a bit," he said. "Soon after I arrived we had an SUV with a winch and we use it to lift the car up a little bit to alleviate the pressure on the driver and to try and get him out.

Three people are dead and four are injured (Image: ADOLF INGI ERLINGSSON)

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

Click to playTap to play

The video will start in 8Cancel

Play now

"It was a horrible sight to come there and see the wreckage and people there."

Chief Superintendent of south Iceland Police, Sveinn Kristjan Runarsso, said the four injured victims have been taken to hospital with serious injuries, but added that "we haven't been able to talk to them about what happened".

Two helicopters were called to the scene from the local coast guard station, before another was scrambled from the capital of Reykjavik.

It is unclear how the driver lost control of the vehicle, before it landed on the Skeidararsandur sand plain below.

The single-lane bridge spans 1,377ft making it the second longest in Iceland (Image: Google)

A police spokesman told Visir.ie the civil defence control was called out and the road is closed while an investigation is carried out.

The area where the car crashed is described as "the most popular destination on the south coast".

The 1,377ft bridge was built in 1973 and is the second longest bridge in Iceland.

Temperatures at the time were around freezing and roughly an hour before sunrise in Iceland.

The crash happened just south of Skaftafell National Park, part of the Vatnajokull National Park, which was nominated for inclusion in Unesco's World Heritage List in 2018.

The crash happened in the south of the island - on the opposite side from the capital city

The Vatnajokull glacier is the largest in Europe, covering 8% of Iceland's landmass including the island's tallest peak Hvannadalshnjukur at 2,200 metres tall (7,218ft).

Tourists flock to the area to enjoy hiking, camping and sightseeing flights.

South of the national park is the Skeidararsandur, a vast sand plain formed from alluvial deposits, with little vegetation, with the Nupsvotn glacial lakes on its western boundary.